What if Walt Disney was the producer of Looney Tunes/Walt Disney Animated Classics/The Lion King/Timon and Pumbaa (novel)
Timon and Pumbaa is a 1960 children's novel written by Roald Dahl and published by Random House. Summary Timon is a meekart who is an social outcast in his meerkat colony. Timon is also the son of his late Pa, who was the colony's greatest meerkat, nicknamed "Fearless Buzz". Though he is unconditionally supported by his mother Ma, Timon dreams for more in life than his colony's bleak existence hiding from predators. One day, he is assigned as a sentry, but his daydreaming nearly leads to the death of his Uncle Max by a clan of spotted hyenas; the colony's princess Tatiana also gets captured by the hyenas. This marks the last straw for the colony before the Duke finds Timon guilty for that and he is sentenced to live in banishment, cast out of the colony, prompting Timon to leave to find a better life. Timon meets a cheetah who teaches him about "Hakuna Matata" (meaning "No Worries" in Swahili) and advises him to "look beyond what you see". Timon and ventures anywhere he sees, but then he begins to feel scared while walking around a shadow-filled jungle. He then gasps at the sound of laughter and finds himself inside the mouth of one of the hyenas. He runs out of its mouth and runs into a warthog named Pumbaa, who was captured by the hyenas. Pumbaa, having been tricked, asks Timon if they invited him over for dinner too. the hyenas gang up on them, saying that they'll have a little "'kat"-nip, and then that they'll "pig" out. Timon and Pumbaa make a run for it, away from the hyenas, and they say their goodbyes and go their separate ways. The next morning, while hunting for breakfast, Timon and Pumbaa run into each other again, with the latter asking the former if he was going to the colony. After noticing that their breakfast is getting away, they introduce themselves, and finally catch the bug. However, after Timon hears Pumbaa's breaking-wind, Pumbaa, breaking into song, tells Timon how he feels when other animals tell him to go away, and that he's a loner. Timon tells Pumbaa that he is banished from his colony and stranded, and thinks that in a cold and mean world, the two of them should be "alone together", that two heads are better than one. Pumbaa hears what Timon is saying correctly, and that they should become the "bestest of friends." With the pair exhausted after many adventures, Timon decides to give up, until Pumbaa discovers a luxurious green jungle. The pair finally settle there with the philosophy of "Hakuna Matata". The pair catch some bugs and put them in a bag to eat. A short while later, the silence of the jungle is broken after Timon hears Tatiana's cry for help while about to become a sacrifice for the hyenas. Pumbaa feels that once Timon saves her, the warthog would be alone again, but Timon disagrees, saying that once he rescues Tatiana, Pumbaa would join the colony, and that he would no longer be an outcast. Pumbaa is overjoyed by this, and the two of them rescue Tatiana and get the hyenas killed by lions. Later, after seeing that Tatiana is saved by Timon, the colony opens the front gate in joyous celebration. At the trial, all charges against Timon are dropped for the brave, cunning, and resourceful rescue of Tatiana, and as an added bonus, the Duke offers Timon the key to the city, and Tatiana offers her hand to him in marriage. After Pumbaa reminds him, Timon asks the Duke to declare Pumbaa an official member of the colony — but the Duke says that only meerkats are allowed to live in the colony, and gives Timon a choice between anything he could ever want (power, riches and love) or being Pumbaa's friend. Timon finally decides to have Tatiana for marriage and Pumbaa for being his friend as he also decides to give up all the fancy stuff for Pumbaa. Timon then had an announcement that the colony don't have to dig tunnels or worry about predators anymore. A couple of days later, Timon, Pumbaa and Simba take Ma, Max, Tatianta, the Duke and the entire colony to live in an predator-free jungle, which Timon and Pumbaa finally found, to complete his "Hakuna Matata"; and Timon is praised as their hero. In addition to the main narrative, the book contains several independent short stories which show Timon and Pumbaa's adventures around the world while searching their dream home. These appear for the most part between the chapters chronicling the duo's journey. The chapter "Makuna Matata Kung Fu" shows Pumbaa rescuring Timon from a evil lion named Taka (who would become Scar from Dahl's latter novel Simba the Lion King) via kung-fu; the chapter "TBD" shows TBD; the most of them also have some encounters between Timon and Pumbaa and a villainous man of many disguises named Quint. Characters References in the book to other Roald Dahl works Film adaptation